Mag. Dr. Markus Pöchtrager

A. Brief professional biography/academic CV

Markus Pöchtrager received his PhD from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Vienna in 2006. From 2008–2017 he was an Assistant Professor in Linguistics at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where he also served as the vice-chair of the department 2016–2017. Since 2017 he has been a post-doc lecturer in linguistics at the University of Vienna.

While in Istanbul he conducted two projects on minority languages in Turkey (Laz, Sason Arabic) and received the prize for the best teacher of the faculty twice (2009, 2015).

 

B. Overview of main research fields, most important activities and achievements 2014-2020

B1. Research interests in general:

Phonological theory, phonetics, interaction between phonology and morphology, linguistics as a cognitive science, Finno‐Ugric and Scandinavian languages as well as Turkic languages.

 

B2. Details about phonological research:

Autosegmental models of phomology, internal structure of vowels (in particular the representation of openness and length), structural analogy to syntax, delimitation between phonology and morphology.

 

B3. Talks:

(* invited speaker at seminar, ** invited speaker at conference)

 

Alveolars, size and lenition. Paper presented at the “21st Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 23–25, 2013, Manchester/UK.

Danish is Estonian is English. Paper presented at the “CUNY Conference on Weight in Phonology and Phonetics”, January 16–17, 2014, New York/ USA.

(Together with Jonathan Kaye.) Phony Metaphony. Paper presented at the “22nd Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 29–31, 2014, Manchester/UK.

** Phonology goes syntax. Keynote address at “CECIL’S 4/4th Central European Conference in Linguistics for Postgraduate Students”, August 21–22, 2014, Lublin, Poland.

k-∅ and what phonology can do. Paper presented at the “17th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics (ICTL 17)”, September 3–5, 2014, Rouen/ France.

Alveolars on the verge of a nervous breakdown Poster presented at the “12^th Old World Conference in Phonology (OCP12)”, January 27–30, 2015, Barcelona/Spain.

(Together with Jonathan Kaye.) All that glitters is not gold: The problem of phonological self-deception. Paper presented at the “Government Phonology Round Table 2015”, May 1–3, 2015, Vienna/Austria.

Loutish Umlaut. Paper presented at the “Government Phonology Round Table 2015”, May 1–3, 2015, Vienna/Austria.

Vowel reduction: Sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. Paper presented at the “23rd Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 28–30, 2015, Manchester/ UK.

What’s in a cluster? Poster presented at the “International Conference on Phonetics and Phonology 2015”, September 25–27, 2015, Keio University, Tokyo/Japan.

** What do you mean, it’s not phonology? Keynote address at “Linguistics Beyond And Within”, October 22–23, 2015, Lublin, Poland.

* What do you mean, it’s not phonology? Invited lecture at “Structures formelles du langage”, December 7, 2015, Paris.

A structural approach to vowel reduction. Paper presented at the “13^th Old World Conference in Phonology (ocp13)”, January 13–16, 2016, Budapest.

* What do you mean, it’s not phonology? Paper presented at “Dokuz Eylül University, Linguistics Club”, April 1, 2016, Izmir.

* Vowel reduction and element theory. Paper presented at the “Phonetics Group, University of Amsterdam”, April 4, 2016, Amsterdam.

* Phonology, Morphology, and the Lexicon. Paper presented at the “Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication”, April 6, 2016, Amsterdam.

* The Turkish k–∅ alternation. Paper presented at “PhonoLAM”, April 7, 2016, Amsterdam.

Vowel reduction in Turkish, or: The great divide. Paper presented at the “24^th Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 2628, 2016, Manchester/UK.

Vowel reduction: Sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. Paper presented at “LingDay, Boğaziçi University”, June 6, 2016, Istanbul.

Vowel reduction: Sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. Paper, June 15, 2016, Nantes.

(Together with Heather Newell.) An underlying (s)ı(n). Paper presented at “Phonological Theory Agora. Meeting 3”, October 14–15, 2016, Tours/ France.

A structural approach to vowel reduction. Paper presented at “Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics: 32nd Annual Meeting”, October 25–26, 2016, Jerusalem.

(Together with Heather Newell.) The case of the missing possessive morpheme. Paper presented at “Morphology in Montréal–Ottawa–Toronto (MoMOT)”, November 18–20, 2016, Ottawa.

* What do you mean, it’s not phonology? Paper presented at Carleton University, March 3, 2017, Ottawa.

* Kaye’s Derivations & Interfaces. Guest lecture at Université du Québec à Montréal, March 22, 2017.

A structural approach to vowel reduction. Paper presented at “Atelier de phonologie MOT (Montreal–Ottawa–Toronto) Phonology Workshop”, March 24–26, 2017, Université du Québec à Montréal.

* Key ideas in Government Phonology. Guest lecture at Université de Montréal, March 27, 2017.

* Syntax-bound phonology. Paper presented at Université du Québec à Montréal, April 12, 2017.

* What do you mean, it’s not phonology? Paper presented at McGill University, Montréal, April 25, 2017.

Transparent vowels: Small cogs in large machines. Paper presented at the “25^th Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 25–27, 2017, Manchester/UK.

** What is this thing called phonology? Keynote address at “LingDay, Boğaziçi University”, June 7, 2017, Istanbul.

** Vowel reduction: Sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. Paper presented at the “Workshop for Martin Prinzhorn”, November 11, 2017, Technical University Vienna.

(Together with Jonathan Kaye.) VOT do you mean? Pulp fiction. Paper presented at the “Government Phonology Round Table”, November 18, 2017, Budapest.

Transparent vowels: Small cogs in large machines. Poster presented at the “15^th Old World Conference in Phonology (OCP15)”, January 12–14, 2018, London.

Transparent vowels: Small cogs in large machines. Paper presented at the “41^st GLOW Colloquium (glow41)”, April 10–14, 2018, Budapest.

** A unified theory of vowels. Keynote address at “Tenth North American Phonology Conference (NAPhCX)”, May 4–5, 2018, Montréal.

Tense? (Re)lax! A new formalisation of the tense/lax contrast. Paper presented at the “26^th Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 24–26, 2018, Manchester/UK.

* Vowel height and structure. Paper presented at the “Atelier de phonologie/Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage”, June 13, 2018, Paris.

** A unified theory of vowels. Keynote address at “Elements. State of the Art and Perspectives”, June 14–15, 2018, Nantes/France.

Recursion and GP 2.0. Paper presented at the Workshop “Parallels Between Phonology and Syntax”, July 9, 2018, Meertens Institute, Amsterdam.

Geminates are Triplets. Poster presented at the “5th NINJAL International Conference on Phonetics and Phonology (NINJAL ICPP 2018)”, October 26–28, 2018, Tokyo, Japan.

* Not all elements are created equal. Paper presented at Tohoku Gakuin University Sendai, October 29, 2018, Sendai, Japan.

Tense? (Re)lax! A new formalisation of the tense/lax contrast. Paper presented at the “Old World Conference in Phonology XVI”, Januar 16–18, 2019, Verona/Italy.

Towards a non-arbitrary account of affrication. Paper presented at “Generative Linguistics in the Old World (glow) 42”, May 8–11, 2019, Oslo/ Norway.

(Together with Connor Youngberg:) Hush-hush: A structural account of vowel devoicing in Japanese. Paper presented at “27^th Manchester Phonology Meeting”, May 23–25, 2019, Manchester/UK.

(Together with Katalin BalognéBérces:) Open Sesame, or: Interactions of vowel height and length in Hungarian. Poster presented at the “3rd Budapest Linguistics Conference (BLiNc 3)”, June 6–8, 2019, Budapest/Hungary.

Affricates. Paper presented at “Government Phonology Round Table (GPRT) 2019”, June 14–15, 2019, Wien/Austria.

(Together with Connor Youngberg:) What Québec French can teach us about vowel devoicing in Japanese Paper presented at “A Day of Government, Licensing and Elements: In Honour of Monik Charette”, July 2, 2019, London/ UK.

* Towards a unified theory of vowels. Paper presented at the Budapest Research Centre for Linguistic Theory, September 10, 2019, Budapest/Hungary.

* Recursion and GP 2.0. Paper presented at the Budapest Research Centre for Linguistic Theory, September 12, 2019, Budapest/Hungary.

* Between a rock and a hard place: the constituency of glides. Paper presented at Boğaziçi University, November 7, 2019, ^˙Istanbul/Turkey.

Hierarchy vs. linearity in phonology and the recursive structure of nuclei. Paper presented at “Recursivity in phonology, below and above the word”, November 21–22, 2019, Barcelona/Spain.

Danish, Estonian, English: Variations on a theme. Poster presented at the “6th NINJAL International Conference on Phonetics and Phonology (NINJAL ICPP 2019)”, January 12–14, 2019, Tokyo, Japan.

Towards a non-arbitrary account of affrication. Paper presented at the “17th Old World Conference in Phonology”, February 5–7, 2020, Warsaw/Poland.

(Together with Connor Youngberg:) The rest is silence: Japanese vowel de-voicing, structure, and the Empty Category Principle. Paper presented at “17th Old World Conference in Phonology”, February 5–7, 2020, Warsaw/ Poland.

Danish, Estonian, English: Variations on a theme. Paper presented at “43rd Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) conference”, April 8–20, 2020, Berlin, Germany/online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Danish, Estonian, English: Variations on a theme. Paper presented at “Fonologi i Norden (FiNo) 2021”, February 26–27, 2021, Helsinki, Finland/online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A(perture) as structure. Paper presented at “Colloque 50 ans de linguistique à l’UQAM”, April 23–25, 2021, Montreal, Canada/online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

B4. Publications

 

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2014. Alternations: The Vipers in Our Bosom. Dil­bilim Araştırmaları II. 147–164.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2015. Beyond the Segment. Eric Raimy & Charles Cairns (eds): The Segment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 44–64.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2015. Binding in Phonology. Henk van Riemsdijk & Marc van Oostendorp (eds.): Representing Structure in Phonology and Syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 255–275.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2016. Is there phonological vowel reduction in Turk­ish? Mine Güven, Didar Akar, Balkız Öztürk & Meltem Kelepir (eds.): Exploring the Turkish Linguistic Landscape: Essays in honor of Eser Erguvanlı Taylan. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 21–39.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2016. It’s all about size. Péter Szigetvári (ed): 70 snippets to mark Ádám Nádasdy’s 70th birthday. Accessed March 14, 2017, seas3.elte.hu/nadasdy70/pochtrager.html

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2017. Apples, Oranges and Structural Analogy. Clemens Mayr & Edwin Williams (eds): 11-11-17. Festschrift für Martin Prinzhorn. Wiener Linguistische Gazette [wlg]. 82. 235–242.

Kleanthes K. Grohmann, Markus A. Pöchtrager, Tobias Scheer, Michael Schiffmann & Neven Wenger. 2017. The Apex Paradox. Linguistic Inquiry Snippets. 31. 10–12.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2018. Sawing off the branch you are sitting on. Acta Linguistica Academica. 65:1. 47–68.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2019. Zárlatok és kezdetek. [What’s in a coda-onset

cluster?] Általános Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok. 31. 205–232.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2019. Discussion in: Szigetvári, Péter “Where are syllables?” Radical: A Journal of Phonology. 1. 111–119.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2020. Recursion and GP 2.0. In: Kuniya Nasukawa (ed.): Recursion in Phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 237–266.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2020. Tense? (Re)lax! A new formalisation for a controversial contrast. Acta Linguistica Academica. 67:1. 53–71. DOT: 10.1556/2062.2020.00005

Elissa Pustka, Markus A. Pöchtrager, Alexandra N. Lenz et al. (eds.) 2020. Proceedings of the Conference “Phonetics and Phonology in the German Language Area (P&P14).” Vienna: University of Vienna/Phaidra. phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1082319 DOT: 10.25365/phaidra.159

Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2020. The great divide: Parts of speech and their consequences for the phonological shape of Turkish words. In: Dilek Uygun, Balkız Öztürk & Aslı Gürer (eds.): Morphological Complexity within and across Boundaries. In honour of Aslı Göksel. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 211–234.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. In print. Towards a non-arbitrary account of affricates and affrication. Glossa. A journal of general linguistics.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. In print. A structural account of the English vowel system. Contribution to: Sabrina Bendjaballah & Laurence Voeltzel (eds.): Perspectives on Element Theory. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. In print. Morphology made (too) simple? Phonological problems with and a solution to the analytic/non-analytic distinction. Acta Linguistica Academica.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. In print. From me to [ju:]. Contribution to: Florian Breit, John Harris, Yuko Yoshida & Connor Youngberg (eds.): Festschrift for Monik Charette. London: UCL Press.

Markus A. Pöchtrager & Connor Youngberg. Submitted. Ablaut. Con­tribution to: Peter Ackema, Sabrina Bendjaballah, Eulalia Bonet & Antonio Fabregas (eds.): Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology. New York: Wiley Blackwell.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. Submitted. Danish, Estonian, English: Variations on a theme. Glossa. A journal of general linguistics.

Markus A. Pöchtrager. In preparation. The Unbearable Lightness of Being High. Contribution to: Marc van Oostendorp & Jeroen van de Weijer (eds.): Festschrift for Harry van der Hulst. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Jonathan D. Kaye & Markus A. Pöchtrager. In preparation. Pi[g?][z?] in s[p?]ace. Contribution to: Marc van Oostendorp & Jeroen van de Weijer (eds.): Festschrift for Harry van der Hulst. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Markus A. Pöchtrager & Connor Youngberg. In preparation. Hush-hush: A structural account of vowel devoicing in Japanese.

 

 

B5. Conference organisation

 

Co-organiser of “Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum 2018 (P&P14)”, [“Phonetics and Phonology in the German-speaking countries 2018 (P&P14)”] September 6–7, 2018, University of Vienna, Austria.

Main organiser of the “Government Phonology Round Table (GPRT 2019)”, June, 14–15, 2019, University of Vienna, Austria.

Co-organiser of the “46. Österreichischen Linguistiktagung”, [“46th Austrian Linguistics Conference”] Dezember 4 – 6, 2020, postponed due to Covid-19. University of Vienna, Austria.

Co-organiser of the “44^th GLow Colloquium”, April 15– 17, 2021, fully online due to Covid-19.

 

 

B6. Projects

 

18-month project (extended to 30 months) on “Sason Arapçası’nın sesbilimi” (“The phonology of Sason Arabic”), funded by Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri (“Scientific Research Projects”), Boğaziçi University, project #8781, 31. 7. 2014–31. 1. 2017. [57.000 Turkish Liras / 17.700 Euros]

 

 

B7. Peer reviews for scientific journals (alphabetical order)

Acta Linguistica Academica, Baall/Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics, Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, Glossa, Journal of Linguistics, Language and Linguistics Compass, Lingua, Linguistic Variation, Phonology, Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, The Linguistic Review, Wiener Linguistische Gazette

 

B8. Peer reviews for conferences (alphabetical order)

Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique, Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Elements: State of the Art and Perspectives, Generative Linguistics in the Old World, Old World Conference in Phonology, Phonological variation and its interfaces, Poznań Linguistic Meeting, Sinfonija, Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics, Workshop on Clause Typing and the Syntax-to-Discourse Relation in Head-Final Languages, Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic

 

B9. Other

Member of editorial team:

·         Wiener Linguistische Gazette (2019–)

·         Linguistic Variation (2019–)

 

Member of editorial boards:

·         Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique (2016–)

·         Linguistics Beyond and Within (2015–)

·         Glossa (2019–)

·         Phonology (2021–)

 

Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW), board member

 

 

C. Most important teaching and supervision activities and achievements 2014–2020

 

June 2015: Prize for the best teacher at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (while still employed at) Boğaziçi Üniversitesi.

 

(Together with Bettina Gruber:) Was ist eigentlich Sprache? Presentation at KinderUniWien (Children’s University Vienna) July 8–19, 2019, Wien/ Austria.

 

Courses taught at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (2014–2017):

Ling 104 (Phonetics), Ling 111 (Introduction to Language & Linguistics), Ling 501 (MA Phonology), Ling 48C (Phonology in the Twentieth Century), Ling 585 (Vowel systems), Ling 601 (PhD Phonology), Ling 690 (MA Thesis), Ling 790 (PhD Thesis)

 

Courses taught at the University of Vienna as an external lecturer (2015, 2016)

“Phonologie, Morphologie und das Lexikon” [“Phonology, Morphology, and the Lexicon”], “Rektionsphonologie: Gegenwart, Vergangenheit und Zukunft” [“Government Phonology: Present, past, and future”]

 

Courses taught at the University of Vienna as a regular employee (2017–2020):

StEOP “Einführung in die Phonetik und Phonologie” [“Introduction to phonetics and phonology”], “Geschichte der Phonologie” [“History of phonology”], “Grundlagen der Allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft” [“Fundamental issues in general linguistics”], “Vokalsysteme” [“Vowel systems”], “BA-Seminar aus allgemeiner Sprachwissenschaft” [“BA seminar in general linguistics”], “Phonologie, Morphologie und das Lexikon” [“Phonology, morphology, and the lexicon”], “Wortbetonung” [“Word stress”].

 

Supervision of MA theses at Boğaziçi University (2014–2017)

 

Begüm Avar (MA thesis, not completed, “Rebellious Roots: Turkish Vowel Harmony revisited”)

Filiz Mutlu (MA thesis, “Valence and saturation in phonology”)

Yasin Taşdemir (MA thesis, “Minimal Words in Turkish: A view from locality”)

Elif Kaplan (MA thesis, “Knowledge-Based Expectation Effects on Pitch Perception: A cross-cultural Behavioral and ERP Investigation”, co-supervision with Esra Mungan)

 

As well as member of examination committee for several other students.

 

 

Supervision of various BA theses at the University of Vienna (2017–2020)

 

External reviewer in promotion procedures

Enguehard, Guilleaume. 2016. Vers une représentation exclusivement squelettale de l’accent: argumentation à partir de donnáes du same du sud, du live, du norrois et du russe. Université Sorbonne Paris Cité/ Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7)

Voeltzel, Laurence. 2016. Morphophonologie des langues scandinaves. Hiérarchie segmentale et complexitésyllabique. Université Bretagne Loire/Université de Nantes.